Why Mann Ki Baat is a one way traffic

For me 'Mann Ki Baat' is not a program, for me it is a matter of faith, of worship, or Vrat. Like when people go to worship God, they bring along a Thaal of Prasad. For me, 'Mann Ki Baat' is like a Thaal of Prasad at the feet of God in the form of Janata-Janardan, the people. 'Mann Ki Baat' has become a spiritual journey of my being. – Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his 100th Mann Ki Baat

PM Modi has been religiously addressing the nation through his Mann Ki Baat radio programme for a hundred months and it has been highly popular, undesirably, since it is not only across the AIR and Doordarshan but all TV and social media channels as well. Modi, with his vast government network, has been able to pick up issues of public interest mainly related to his own social campaigns such as Beti Bachao, Swachh Bharat, Khadi, Amrit Sarovar, Covid care and the environment. No dispute over that since these are all important issues that concern everyone. Critics would however say that these are not the only ones that concern the nation.

Ahead of Modi’s Mann ki Baat century, the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) conducted a special study and found that 76 per cent of the Indian media persons believe that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popular radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has played a significant role in introducing the real Bharat to the countrymen. The programme has initiated a trend where people are now more aware of the things in other parts of the country and they have started appreciating them. As much as 75 per cent of the respondents feel that ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has emerged as a platform, which introduces grass roots innovators working selflessly to ensure a significant difference in the lives of people living in remote areas of India.

IIMC Director General Prof Sanjay Dwivedi said 890 persons associated with the media - media persons, media faculty, media researchers and media students - from 116 media houses, academic institutions and universities across the country participated in the study. Any research and study results depend on the questions that you ask and, in this study, too the findings are not unexpected. According to the respondents, ‘Knowledge about the Country’ and ‘PM’s Vision about the Country’ are the two important reasons which motivate them to listen to the programme. When the respondents were asked how they listen to the programme if they miss any episode, 63 per cent said they prefer YouTube over the other media. 76 per cent of the respondents feel that they are a participant in the democratic process by listening to PM Modi on various issues in ‘Mann Ki Baat’. Obviously, IIMC does not realise that democracy is a two-way traffic which includes allowing different colours of communication and not just what suits the communicator.

Modi and machinery did cherry picking and incorporated only those issues and people that are music to his ears. From a school student to an ordinary artisan, anybody is bound to be dazzled to receive a call from the Prime Minister. That is what has been happening with the ‘popular’ Mann Ki Baat. We have seen this kind of emotional reaction even when Amitabh Bachhan made phone-a-friend calls during his KBC programmes. Nothing different as far as dramatics are concerned. The Mann Ki Baat has also been one-way communication traffic, typical of Modi’s style functioning. He has never addressed a single national media conference which used to be a regular affair with the past PMs. Being a social media savvy man, Modi broke all traditions of communication and chose twitter for his messaging and used the PIB for spreading the communication. In the absence of any official contact with the PM, the media in general had no choice but to remained (REMAIN) glued to the social media and pick up threads from there. Criticism is never welcome and if one dares question the PM or the Government, one gets trolled. To borrow a legislature speaker’s expression, Trolls have it, trolls have it. The majority bulldozes the minority opinion.

The Prime Minister is not a superman. He is not supposed to be the master of jack of all trades. He gets advised by his experienced officers (read IAS) who are again picked and chosen by him. So, they sing tunes that are music to him and not discordant chords. That was the style of functioning of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as well. I am not blaming Modi for having officers of his liking and those who show positive pictures and not negative films. In these days of digital photography, the question of negative films does not arise anyway! But you have the intelligence arms such the IB for internal and RAW for external inputs on security issues.

If the government wants, these arms can also be sued for gathering political intelligence. Indira Gandhi was supposed to have relied on the IB inputs for calling for elections, particularly during the Emergency and lost due to all miscalculations or the wrong feed. IB relies on the police the information fed by the ground level special branch. As far as the BJP is concerned it has a massive rank and file of the RSS network. With the style of Amit Shah’s functioning, BJP has a poll booth level management system and the unparalleled 18 crore members. The Congress has a Seva Dal network which is miniscule as compared to the RSS fabric and threads.

And the financial resources at the BJP’s command are also enormous. With such a powerful system at its command, does the Modi government get to track the pulse of the nation? Or, if they get, are they so naïve to go by one way traffic of only pleasing information. Or are they so confident that the negative mindset can be erased with the promises of packages and continuous hammering of the Nehru-Gandhi style? Or is overconfidence of rewriting history that suits them, unmindful of corrections from historians, helps them get immediate political gains?

One does not expect the BJP government to answer any of these questions, in fact and other questions as well. Question for question is their style of responding to criticism.

An impartial audit of the government’s policy execution and a mechanism of course correction is part of a democratic system. For instance, despite Beti Bachao, one comes across several cases of ill-treatment of girls. Take the case of sexual harassment raised by women wrestlers at Jantar Mantar. It was only after the intervention of the Supreme Court that the government decided to file an FIR against the accused. Where was the intelligence or advice before the Maharashtra Government organised a massive rally in the scorching heat held at Kharghar in Navi Mumbai for the felicitation of social reformer Appasaheb Dharmadhikari on April 16 when 14 people died of heatstroke? The weathermen has forecast a heatwave and the temperatures were running high from 35 to 40 degrees. Yet, lakhs of people (officials say 25 lakhs and others report 10 lakhs) were made to wait for hours together in the open ground without any semblance of a shade. Then, we had the massive, year-long farmers’ agitation on the borders of the national capital and it is difficult to believe that the government did not have any inkling of the rising anti-government feelings. The nationwide opposition to Agniveer is another example of the intelligence failure or making use of it.

It is your and my democratic right to express our opinions and feelings and offer suggestions to the government. It is also not in the interest of BJP itself to have only one-way traffic communication as we discussed in earlier columns. The government must open channels of communication and Mann Ki Baat is one such tool at the command of the Prime Minister. I sincerely hope, those who advise the functioning of the government will someday realise the importance of the two-way traffic of communication.

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based independent media veteran, running websites and a YouTube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging)